Otter

See also: otter

English

Proper noun

Otter

1. A river whose source in the Blackdown Hills, Somerset, and which flows into Lyme Bay in English Channel.

Related terms

• Otterford
• Otterhead
• Ottery St Mary

Anagrams

• Treto, ortet, toret, torte, toter

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German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɔtɐ/

Etymology 1

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old High German otter, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Germanic *utraz, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Indo-European *udrós.

Noun

Otter m (genitive Otters, plural Otter)

1. otter

Derived terms

• Fischotter m
• Seeotter m

Etymology 2

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old High German nātara. Originally the same word as Natter (“colubrid”). The form is based on the common dialectal development -ā- → -ō- with subsequent irregular shortening. Loss of initial n- is a common development in the Germanic languages and is due to unetymological segmentation of preceding endings or articles, for example: *eine notter, dialectally *en notter → *en‿otter. The same happened in Dutch adder and English adder. The German form was spread by Luther.

Noun

Otter f (genitive Otter, plural Ottern)

1. adder
2. viper

Usage notes

• At least outside of scientific parlance, this word is chiefly restricted to compound words.

Derived terms

• Kreuzotter
• Otterngezücht